The study was published in the latest issue of the journal Science
After 12 years of research, researchers succeeded in growing nanodiamond layers in the Technion laboratories. The researchers say that this is a scientific achievement and a breakthrough, which makes it possible to control the nucleation processes of polycrystalline diamond layers on different substrates. Also, the results of the research may shed light on the formation process of solid carbon during the big bang that led to the creation of the world. The diamond particles grown in the Technion laboratories are similar to those previously found in meteorites. Professor Alon Hoffman, the head of the laboratory for thin layers and surfaces in the Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion, says that the development also has far-reaching industrial implications.
Researchers from Israel, Germany and Hong Kong joined in the development of the revolutionary process. The theoretical model explaining the mechanism of nanodiamond formation was proposed by Professor Isaiah Lipshitz from the nuclear reactor at Nahal Sorek and by Professor Hoffman from the Technion. The theoretical calculations, which come to support the model, were made by groups of researchers in Germany and Hong Kong. The laboratory development was done in the laboratories of the Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion under the permission of Professor Hoffman, where two doctoral students worked on the project: Irena Guzman and Alexi Haiman.
The researchers explained that the uniqueness of carbon lies in its ability to form chemical bonds of different and varied types, between itself and between other elements. In the mines it is found in the form of a single crystal diamond. The presence of a tiny, nanometer-sized diamond, which can only be seen with a special microscope, indicates that the conditions of the formation of the universe correspond to the conditions of the formation of the diamond.
As the hardest material in nature, the diamond is used not only as an expensive piece of jewelry, but also, and above all, as an extremely important material for industry, as a coating and as a cutting tool. Diamond coating is also used in space shuttle windows and missile domes. It is also the best heat spreader in nature, so it is very important in the microelectronics industry. A diamond can be grown, as it was created in the process of the creation of the world - at high temperatures and high pressures of thousands of atmospheres. In the Technion laboratories, diamond is grown at temperatures of hundreds of degrees and subatmospheric pressures, which are easier to work with in the laboratory. "At the Faculty of Chemistry, with the technical support of Yitzhak Lior and the workshop workers, we developed two systems with which we can grow nanodiamond layers from a mixture of gases, hydrogen and methane (both of which are abundant in nature and environmentally friendly)," explains Professor Hoffman. "Today we can grow thin and continuous diamond layers on solid surfaces, sub-micron to a few microns thick."
This is how you can coat iron and cutting tools, as well as an optical window, and make them extremely durable. There is no need to work with the hard material in the first place, but work with a material that is easy and convenient to work with, and only then observe the thin layer of diamonds that hardens it.
In the Laboratory for Thin Layers and Surfaces at the Technion's Faculty of Chemistry, the researchers were able to grow the first nanodiamond nuclei, by deposition from the plasma phase, and propose a model that explains the process of formation of nanodiamond particles (very tiny diamonds) from the plasma phase. This discovery received many echoes in the scientific world and was published in the prestigious "Science" newspaper, since until now the nucleation process of the diamond from the plasma phase was not clear. "From now on it will be possible to better control the location of the growth of the diamond, whether it is on the edge of a steel that will make it a very durable cutting knife, whether it is in the window of the spacecraft or the dome of the rocket," say the researchers.
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~341675915~~~191&SiteName=hayadan
